


Boyfriend Discount

by fumomoshi



Category: Original Work
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 12:15:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14790359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fumomoshi/pseuds/fumomoshi
Summary: AU where Karu part-time works in a bakery with Ron when his crush walks in





	Boyfriend Discount

“Karu?! What’s that smell?!” 

Ron rushed to the kitchen in panic, frantically pressing a few buttons on the oven, grabbing a damp towel and pulling out a tray. The pastries on it were mostly charred. Ron sighed, removing them one by one with a pair of tongs. Karu stood nervously beside him. “Um, I might have set the timer a  _ little _ too high,” he said meekly. 

“It’s okay, people make mistakes,” Ron said as he examined the charred bread. Shaking his head, he disposed them into the bin. “Why don’t you take over the counter? I’ll check the rest of the ovens.”

“Okay,” Karu replied and walked out, feeling a little guilty. The counter cheered him up a little, the bright lighting and the wooden shelves, with different golden pieces of bread packed neatly into them, unlike the dull and metallic atmosphere of the kitchen. He heaved a sigh. 

“Is everything okay?” 

Karu looked up. A tall and slender man stood across the counter. His eyes were small and his face wear little expression. Karu recognizes him as Reo, who seemed to have a really good relationship with Ron (Ron generally has good relationships with his customers but it seemed even more so for Reo). He forced smiled and chirped, shrugging away the dark clouds, “Nothing! Just a small hiccup! What can I do for you today?”

Reo placed a tray of pastries on the counter and Karu started counting, making triply sure that he got the price right. “Hmm,” he pondered. There’s nothing wrong with his calculations, but he’s just wondering if… “Do you usually get a boyfriend discount?” he asked Reo.

The expression on Reo’s face did not falter, although Karu could see him slowly becoming slightly red. “...No,” he muttered. 

_ Oops.  _ Karu thought. “Wait here!” He told Reo as he ran back into the kitchen, where Ron was trying to clean up the mess and air away the burnt smell. “R-ron! Does Reo get a special discount?”

Ron tilted his head in confusion. “What special discount?” 

“You know!” Karu rolled his eyes. “Like boyfriend discount?”

Ron eyes went wide open.

“Or husband discount? I’m not really sure what is your relationship with him.” Karu wondered out loud. 

_ H-husband?!  _ Ron rushed to cup his hands over Karu’s mouth. “Shh!” he urged, face visibly very, very red. “N-n-not so l-loud!” he whispered to a struggling Karu trying to speak. “Just give him our lowest price, and don’t go around talking about this!” With that, he released Karu.

“Lowest price as in...all our discounts?” Karu asked, recovering from the surprise of Ron’s sudden reaction.

Ron looked away and nodded, repeating softly, “Y-yeah, something like that. But don’t tell him! He doesn’t know.”

“Ohh! I get it now, aha!” Karu smiled, giving a hearty thumbs up and skipping back to the counter. He faced Reo and smiled. “Um! We happen to have a special offer today, and you happen to pick the right bread, and boss happen to be in a good mood, so it so happens that your pastries will be cheaper today! Isn’t it great?! So the total will just happen to be seven hundred yen!”

“Oh,” Reo managed to say, taking out his money. “That’s a lot of discount, are you sure?”

“It’s fine~” Karu keyed in the amount into the register. “Seven hundred, please!”

With that, Reo handed over the money, muttered a soft ‘thanks’ and promptly left. “Come back again!” Karu said, and started humming a tune as he puts the money into the register. 

And then, it was quiet again. Bored, Karu started cleaning up the counter as Ron continued working in the kitchen. A couple of hours passed and still no customers. It wasn’t a particularly exciting day, and soon both Karu and Ron started chit-chatting as they wait for more customers. “Don’t you get more customers?” Karu asked. “When I dropped by before, there is usually a small crowd.”

“I don’t get a crowd all the time, silly,” Ron replied, smiling at Karu’s naiveness. He’s just a highschool kid after all, who is working part-time for him.  “People are usually at work now, so the crowd will come towards the end of the day, if you haven’t noticed already.” 

“Oh, that makes sense,” Karu nods. “So, when did you meet Reo! What do you like about him? How did you guys get together?”

“K-Karu! T-that’s rude!” Ron exclaimed, blood rushing to his face again. “Y-you shouldn’t ask personal questions like that!”

“Eh…? But isn’t it an open secret?” Karu asked, eyes shining with curiosity. “Tell me~!”

“W-what about you!” Ron pouted. “Don’t you have someone you like too? I-i-if you tell me, I’ll tell you too! It’s only fair!”

Karu felt his heart stop. An awkward silence filled the air. He eyes swam away from Ron. “T-there isn’t anyone I like, haha-hahaha!” He tried, “I mean, how can anyone like me, right? I’m fickle-minded, loud, annoying, imposing…”

“W-whoa! Wait! You are bright and cheerful! And energetic! I’m sure someone out there likes those qualities!” Ron said, patting Karu’s back with loud thumps, almost as if he’s hitting away his gloomy thoughts. Karu lowered his head, embarrassed at the sudden complement. He wondered if the person he likes thinks the same way about him. “So who is it! A girl? Or could it be a…”

The entrance door opens with a tinkle. Karu instinctively turned to greet the customer. “Welcom-” he started but the rest of the word got stuck in his throat, as he felt his heart tried to escape. “S-su - I mean - Tachibana-san, w-what bring you here?” he said, feeling strangely warm and dizzy.

The customer turned towards Karu and waved casually, with a slight frown on his face. “What’s wrong? You can just call me ‘Sui’ like you always do.”

“Ahaha!” Karu laughed. “You’re r-right! What am I being so formal for, ahaha! What brings you here! We have bread! They are delicious!”

Sui chuckled lightly. “I can see that, Karu. Anyway, I heard you are working part time here so I decided to drop by to see how you were doing.” 

“E-erm!” Karu couldn’t speak. He felt light-headed. It’s strange. He doesn’t usually fumble on words or conversations. He turned to Ron for help, who was returning him a strange mischievous grin. “I’m doing fine!” He managed to cough out. “A few things happened here and there but nothing serious!” He looked away, feeling terrible with that lie; he had just burnt some bread earlier. “Our breads are delicious!” He repeated, pointing at the pastries around the store. “You should try some!”

“Oh, what do you recommend?” Sui asked. 

Karu froze. In all honestly, Karu loved every single piece of pastry here. He was about to recommend all of them but decided that it wouldn’t be very professional or helpful in doing so. He swallowed and turned to Ron.  _ Help? _ But Ron was no longer beside him. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,” he said as he walked away. Karu felt panic rising erupting from within. What kind of pastry does Sui even like to eat? Something sweet? Savory? That’s  everything in the store! His heart dropped a little; he had been friends with Sui since he was a child but still doesn’t know his tastes in pastries. He started wondering if he even knows anything about the usually quiet Sui.  _ You are thinking too much, Karu,  _ Karu urged himself, shaking his head. 

“So!” Karu started, his raised voice shaking his anxiousness away. “What kind of pastries do you like? Our specialities are the Sausage Buns! It’s...er...savory and delicious! And comes in all kinds of sizes and bread-to-sausage ratios! Plus, it’s fresh! Everything here is fresh actually…” He took a breath. “We have sweet stuff too like chocolate buns, cream puffs and strawberry donuts.”

Sui pauses for a moment to think, smiled and said, “I'll have some of the sausages, I guess.” He turned to look for the tray and tongs but Karu already beat him to it. 

“Which one would you like?” Karu beamed at Sui, making a clanking sound with the plastic tongs. “The small ones? The big ones? The one with chilli? The one in a croissant?” 

“I don’t know, what would you recommend?” Sui asked.

Karu frowned. In truth, he likes everything in the bakery. In truth, he wanted Sui to try everything, but he knew that it’s not possible. “How about...our special Sausage Speedboat?” Karu grabbed a pastry from one of the shelves and played it on the tray. The pastry is a bread shaped as the hull of a speedboat, with a sausage half immersed across the middle, complete with a flag at the starboard’s back side. “See? It comes with a flag.”

“O-oh,” Sui raised his eyebrows at the simple flag made of a toothpick and a piece of paper. He turned to look at the rest of the pastries and pointed at some of them. “I think I’ll get the small ones too, for my siblings.” 

“Oh right!” Karu remembered. He was introduced to Sui’s siblings before; a younger brother and a younger sister. “How about getting the sweet ones for them?” He gestures towards  “Kids love sweet stuff!” 

Sui gave a troubled look. “It’s not good to give them too much sweet stuff.” He turned to Karu. “You shouldn't eat too much sugary too, Karu.” 

“I don't eat that much,” Karu pouted. He placed a few of the small strawberry-filled breads onto the tray. “You can have these instead! They are not that sweet. I know cuz I saw them being made!” He said, proudly sticking his chest out. 

Sui smiled. “Did you make my of these?”

“Erm,” Karu’s smile slowly faded. He was supposed to. If he had known that Sui would visit maybe he wouldn't have burnt them. “Aha,” sheepishly, he tried to laugh it off. “Ahaha, I made some but it got burnt…”

“I-it’s okay!” Sui said, waving it away. “You can let me try next time.” 

“I WILL!” Karu instantly responded. “I'll make the most delicious sausage bun! You'll see!” As he keyed in the items into the register, he paused, a statement he said earlier echoed in his mind.

_ Boyfriend discount.  _

Karu could feel his heart pound faster. “T-that would be a thous - no wait - nine - I mean - seven hundred yen!” He choked.

Sui cocked his head. “That's strange. Are you sure you counted that right? That's almost a fifty percent discount.”

“Yeah! I mean, it's discount we give to close…”  _ boyfriends,  _ he almost blurted out, “fffffriends.” 

“Are you sure it's okay? Won't Ron get mad?” Sui asked. 

“It's okay,” came Ron's voice from the kitchen. “Just don't buy off the whole shop with it.”

“Like he said!” Karu said, packing the pastries into a plastic bag, handing it over to Sui. “Thank you for dropping by! Will you be coming over again?” 

“Hmm, maybe.” Sui answered.

“Just text me! I'll prepare my amazing sausage for you to try!” Karu said with a smirk on his face. 

“Alright,” Sui chuckled a little. “Don't forget the bun too.” And with that, he left and the bakery was quiet again. 

Karu hummed happily and proceeded to clean the counter. Ron just came out of the kitchen, a cheeky smile on his face. “Was he the one?” he asked.

“The one?” Karu asked back.

“The one you gave the...ahem... _ boyfriend discount  _ to,” Ron said. 

“No! He’s just a friend!” Karu raised his hands in denial. “We are just friends, really!”

“He's a good boy, though. Why don't you go for him?” Ron pushed, slowly edging closer towards Karu, his suspicious grin still on him. “I can tell you two have the hots for each other.” 

“I d-don't!” Karu immediately denied, face clearly red as a stop sign. He paused, and swallowed. “...wait, he does?”

“I noticed that he was sneakily stealing glances at you while you weren't looking,” Ron explained. He gave a delighted sigh. “Ah, you remind me when I was falling in love.” He retreated to the kitchen, leaving Karu by himself.

Karu bit his lips, cleaning the counter absent-mindedly, thinking about Ron’s words.  _ Sui...likes me?  _ He wondered.  _ If that's true, then there shouldn't be a problem, right?  _

He smiled.

_ I'll ask him out when pass him my sausage buns.  _ He turned towards the kitchen and walked in, excited as a puppy. “Teach me how to make sausage buns!”

 


End file.
